University of Connecticut Health Center

Jackson Laboratory Receives $30 Million ARPA-H Award to Develop AI-Powered Virtual Hearts for Drug Safety Testing

- The Jackson Laboratory received up to $30 million from ARPA-H to develop CARDIOVERSE, an AI-powered platform using virtual hearts to predict drug cardiotoxicity before human trials. - The initiative combines genetically diverse mouse models and human stem cells with artificial intelligence to create digital twins of the human heart that can simulate drug responses across different patient populations. - CARDIOVERSE aims to address cardiotoxicity, which causes up to 15% of drug withdrawals after FDA approval and represents a leading cause of clinical trial failure. - The platform could reduce reliance on expensive large-animal studies and help smaller biotech companies advance drug candidates to human trials more efficiently.